Tao Yuanming (陶淵明; 365–427), also known as Tao Qian (陶潜), courtesy name Yuanliang (元亮), was a Chinese poet and politician. He was one of the best-known poets who lived during the Six Dynasties period. Tao Yuanming spent much of his life in reclusion, living in the countryside, farming, reading, drinking wine, receiving the occasional guest, and writing poems in which he reflected on the pleasures and difficulties of life and his decision to withdraw from civil service.
Tao's simple and direct style was somewhat at odds with the norms for literary writing in his time. From the Tang dynasty onward, he was closely associated with the practice of farming as a recluse. During the Northern Song dynasty, influential literati figures such as Su Shi declared him a paragon of authenticity and spontaneity in poetry, predicting that he would achieve lasting literary fame. But Tao's inclusion in the 6th-century literary anthology Wen Xuan implies he began to gain fame in his own era, at least in his birth area. Tao is now regarded as the foremost representative of Fields and Gardens poetry. He is also known for owning and appreciating an unstrung guqin, claiming that he did not need to bother with the sounds of the strings to value the instrument; this became a common literary reference, and also appears in later depictions of Tao such as his portrait by Chen Hongshou. Tao is also depicted in Jin Guliang's Wu Shuang Pu.
Names In the middle of his life, Tao changed his name (keeping his family name) from Tao Yuanming () to Tao Qian (). "Master of the Five Willows", another name he used when quite young, seems to be a sobriquet of his own invention.Chang, 24–25 There is a surviving autobiographical essay from his youth in which Tao uses "Five Willows" to allude to himself. After this, he refers to himself in his earlier writings as "Yuanming"; but it is thought that with the Eastern Jin dynasty's demise in 420, he began to call himself "Qian", meaning "hiding", to signify his final withdrawal into the quiet life in the country and decision to avoid participation in the political scene.Chang, 22 Tao Qian could also be translated "Recluse Tao",Hinton, 111 but this does not imply an eremitic lifestyle or extreme asceticism but rather a comfortable dwelling with family, friends, neighbors, musical instruments, wine, a nice library, and the beautiful scenery of a mountain farm—Tao Qing's compensation for giving up the lifestyle of Tao Yuanming, government servant.Hinton, 111–112
The names Yuanliang (), Shenming (), and Quanming () are all associated with Tao Yuanming. Some of this results from a naming taboo during the Tang dynasty, specifically that the characters for an emperor's name were impermissible to use either to write or even to casually pronounce. This taboo required the substitution of similar characters or words. As the "High Founder" of the Tang dynasty (posthumously titled Emperor Gaozu of Tang) had the personal name Li Yuan, the yuan () character became taboo. Since this was the same as the yuan in Yuanming, various authors substituted the synonymous shen () for yuan—both referring to "depths".Yeh Chia-ying, translation Josey Shun and Bhikshuni Heng Yin, "Vajra Bhodi Sea" No.343, accessed 5 FEB 2020
Life Ancestry Tao Yuanming's great-grandfather was the eminent Jin dynasty general and governor Tao Kan (259–334). His grandfather and father both served as government officials, rising to the level of county governor.Yeh Chia-ying, part of "陶淵明詩講錄" ("Lectures on Tao Yuan-ming's Poems"), translation Josey Shun and Bhikshuni Heng Yin, "Lectures on Tao Yuanming's Poems", a series of lectures at Gold Buddha Monastery, Canada (lecture tapes were transcribed by Tu Xiaoli, An Yi, and Yang Aidi) <"Vajra Bhodi Sea" No.338, July 1998> and/or subsequent issues at similar IP addresses. But the family circumstances into which Tao Yuanming was born were moderate poverty and lack of much political influence. His father died when he was eight years old.Yeh Chia-ying, translation Josey Shun and Bhikshuni Heng Yin, "Lectures on Tao Yuanming's Poems", a series of lectures at Gold Buddha Monastery, Canada (lecture tapes were transcribed by Tu Xiaoli, An Yi, and Yang Aidi) <"Vajra Bhodi Sea" No.338, July 1998> and/or subsequent issues at similar IP addresses.
Personal background
Tao Yuanming is considered a person of the Eastern Jin dynasty (316/317 – 419/420 CE) who outlived it. The last stable period in Chinese history had been during the Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE), which was followed by the various political permutations known as the Three Kingdoms, one of these successor states being Cao Wei, founded and ruled by the Cao clan and briefly reunifying China. The Jin dynasty was founded and controlled by the Sima clan, the leading members of which were known for gaining and retaining power through corruption. This began before Tao Yuanming's birth, when Sima Yan usurped the throne of the Cao Wei dynasty's monarchal ruler, establishing its headquarters at the western capital of Chang'an and renaming the kingdom Jin. The dynasty was characterized by nepotism, corrupt politics, civil disorder, and violence. Various other clans vied for power. The Sima fought these as well as each other. The weaknesses inherent in the system culminated in the War of the Eight Princes (291–306), all eight princes being Simas. Immediate subsequent events resulted in certain rebels and bandits overruning the country. Many of these rebels were not ethnic Han Chinese, and they were generally referred to as the Five Barbarians, or Wu Hu, one of which was the Xiongnu empire; this event is thus known as the Uprising of the Five Barbarians. The Xiongnu founded their state of Han-Zhao and overthrew remnants of the Jin north of the Yangzi river, capturing and killing the two last Sima rulers of Western Jin, and in the process capturing the ancient capitals Luoyang and Chang'an. When the territory north of the Yangzi was captured, a prince in the south, Sima Rui, set up a new Jin dynasty state with a capital at Jiankang. This new Jin empire continued the traditions of violence and corruption of its predecessor, and this manifestation of Jin, known as Eastern Jin, was the one in which Tao Yuanming was born and lived most of his life. Control of Eastern Jin was usurped by a series of successors of various clans, and also subject to less successful rebellions by various warlords, while also facing external threats from other states such as Northern Wei, whose dynastic rulers were of the Tuoba (Tabgach) clan of the Xianbei. Eventually the whole Jin state was replaced by Liu Song, in 419/420. This new dynasty was named Song (like the much later, larger dynasty) and was ruled by the Liu family, and was also corrupt and short-lived. Versions of Tao Yuanming's biography in the Chinese source material vary as to his name and age during the various historical events of Eastern Jin and Liu Song known from other sources.
Birth
Tao Yuanming was born during the Eastern Jin dynasty (317–420), in Chaisang, which is now a district of the city of Jiujiang in Jiangxi Province.
Year of birth controversy Tao Yuanming is generally believed to have been born in the year 365 CE in Chaisang (; modern Jiujiang), an area of great natural beauty. At the time Jiujiang was named Jiangzhou, and had an actively Buddhist governor. This birthdate is confirmed in Tao's biography in the Book of Jin, which says he was born "in the third year of the Xingning Reign Period of Emperor Ai", or Common Era year 365. But there is some uncertainty about this date, and the scholar Yuan Xingpei has argued that Tao was actually born in 352.
Place of birth The name of Tao Yuanming's ancestral village, Chaisang, literally means "Mulberry-Bramble".Hinton, 110 Nearby sights have included Mountain Lu, Poyang Lake (then known as P'eng-li), as well as a good selection of natural features.
Younger years Detailed information on Tao Yuanming's younger years is not known, but it is safe to say that they were lived in a difficult environment. When he was 18 or 19, both the invasion by the state of Former Qin (ruled by an ethnically Hu dynasty) and the events culminating in the Battle of Fei River (383) occurred; after great risk to the existence of Eastern Jin, this, against the odds, resulted in gains of territory north of the Yangzi, while also whetting Eastern Jin appetites for reconquering the former northern territories. Many events occurred during Tao's lifetime, including two revolts leading to the usurpation of the throne, and, in his old age, the overthrow of Eastern Jin.
Incident at Tiger Creek Bridge
Tao Yuanming's birthplace was near Mountain Lu, which became a center of Buddhism and a source of origin for Pure Land Buddhism. According to historical accounts, in the 11th year of Emperor Xiaowu of Jin's Taiyuan reign period (386), when Tao Yuanming was 21 years old, Buddhist priest Huiyuan (later considered the First Ancestor of Pure Land Buddhism) came to build the Donglin Monastery and organized the White Lotus Society, or a branch thereof. Many scholars and poets participated in the Huiyuan's social circle, centered at the mountain monastery. According to Stories of Worthy Personages in the Lotus Society (), Huiyuan never left the monastery, except for one time. The official border of the monastery was known as Tiger Creek (or Tiger Gorge), named for the tigers that inhabited the neighboring hills and over which spanned a bridge. Once, after Tao and another scholar visited, Huiyuan became so wrapped up in conversation with his guests while seeing them out that he did not notice he was leaving the monastery grounds. Upon crossing the Tiger Creek Bridge, the local tigers were so astonished at this departure from the Master's practice of never leaving the monastery grounds that they began to roar and howl. Once Huiyuan realized he had breached his practice, all three burst out laughing. This incident later became the subject of the paintings of "Three Laughing Men at Tiger Creek" (; Pinyin: hǔ xī sān xiào).
Government service Tao Yuanming did more than ten years of government service, personally involved with the sordid political scene of the times,Davis, vii which he did in five stints.Yeh Chia-ying, translation Josey Shun and Bhikshuni Heng Yin, "Lectures on Tao Yuanming's Poems", a series of lectures at Gold Buddha Monastery, Canada (lecture tapes were transcribed by Tu Xiaoli, An Yi, and Yang Aidi) <"Vajra Bhodi Sea" No.338, July 1998, e.s.> and/or subsequent issues at similar IP addresses. Tao served in both civil and military capacities, making several trips down the Yangzi to the capital Jiankang, then a thriving metropolis and the center of power during the Six Dynasties. The ruins of the old Jiankang walls are in present-day Nanjing. During this period, Tao's poems begin to indicate that he was becoming torn between ambition and a desire to retreat into solitude.
Political background
Enough is known of the general state of affairs during Tao's governmental career to indicate why his service was so miserable for him: Tao served under the two usurpers Huan Xuan and Liu Yu, not to mention the weak Emperor An of Jin.